rocket_scientist wrote:SilverbladeTE wrote:All these debates and actual political, economic etc issues post World War 2 do show that the chaotic situation in the fiction of Through Fiery Trials is plausible
Though I do wonder...how many of all these very convenient heart attacks: Duchairn, Greghor etc were checked for Federation cryogenic toxins....?
Time passes folk get old, death happen, but...still, anyone else thinking Chihiro and/or the Inquisition may be up to dirty tricks?
After so many pages of rehashing history and not the book in question, I was really beginning to wonder if ANYONE had noticed?
Consider the "Pinnacle People" at the end of the Jihad, the people who were both very at what they were doing so their next best replacement would not be as good but also the charisma, loyalty, trust of everyone else. Cataloging them at the end of the Jihad I come up with Archbishop Maikel, Caleb and Sharleyan , Merlin, Grand Vicar Rhobair, Lord Protector Stohnar, Thirsk, Archbishop Zhasyn, Rainbow Waters and Wind Song. Not quite as prominent Eastshare, Chermyn, Ehdwyrd Howsmyn, Tymahn Qwentyn, and growing more so in TFT Star Rising, and Syngpu. Of these Zhasyn was already fading fast in the last book, I was not surprised to read he had died of screen. Rhobair toke me completely by surprise and I was wondering what bizarre twist RFC decided couldn't happen with Rhobair still in charge. But dying suddenly, when he still likely had many years left despite how hard he pushed himself. Then Stohnar, first with a tremor and then suddenly the man who had practically carried the Republic on his back dies. And I started to wonder. When Thirsk came back into the narrative as being old but not dead yet, and having tremors then he was dead and I was sure that someone was assassinating the Pinnacle People. And I picked Rainbow Waters as the next target, and there he was, suddenly weak beyond his years, tremors i his hands, then gone. I didn't remember Chermyn until he planned to abdicate in his son's favor suddenly getting old and weak with a tremor. I expected to read that he died before the day was over but instead it remains an expectation.
So out of all the original Pinnacle People those who are left without the benefit on Merlin's nannies is . . . Wind Song. The others died years apart and seemingly of natural causes, but I kept expecting someone ask Owl to do a secret autopsy on Stohnar. I don't know if Qwentyn was a dry run or truly natural causes. And for what ever reason someone is doing this, I doubt they could have predicted just how much damage killing him alone would to the Republic. And I hope they put armed guards around Howsmyn soon, because whoever it is may start getting desperate that the Chairisian victims fail to fall. And tweak the nannies to report any attempted poisoning.
But who and why? It sounds like a secret poison, and that they have someone who can deliver that poison even around lots of guards. Possibly an old, Harchonian assassin not connected to the Emperor? And why both sides of the Jihad? And whoever it is is playing the long game considering how many years have passed for just the ones I have guessed?
Many of us have noticed- we've just all concluded that the 25 year span of the book makes the number of prominent deaths perfectly reasonable.
If someone is assassinating pinnacle leaders, they are carefully selecting people who could be expected to die of natural causes and who have heirs in place. Both Thirsk and Rainbow Waters are old. Thirsk has teenaged grandchildren. They've been through the most stressful time it's possible to imagine, and Thirsk had the added stress of worrying that his children and grandchildren would be tortured to death. A shorter lifespan than normal is to be expected.
Stonhar, likewise, has been through a civil war, famine, insurrection, financial crisis as the Head of State. Even being a Head of State in more peaceful times means you're likely to die earlier than most of your birth cohort. Why should we be surprised that years of constant, unremitting stress end up killing him?
Rhobair, with his completely unexpected heart attack, is the only 'suspicious' death, and the author sticks a line in (via Staynair) to inform us it's an 'Act Of God' - RFC has chosen to remove Rhobhair.
Given that Robhair was one of my favourite characters from Book 2 onwards, to the extent that I'd do an electronic search for his name to check he'd survived each book, I was a little 'disappointed' at that decision. Until I reached the last scene of the book. Yeah, it would have been heartbreaking to see the character who's fought so hard and so long to bring his church back to God discover that the whole thing is based on a lie. It
would have broken his heart. Better his character leaves the story on a high note of a winning arc.
But if we have assassination in play, why didn't the assassin target the obviously moral, smart and Rhobhair-trained Tymythy Rhobhair? Why didn't the assassin go for Rynyld VI in Dohlar, clearly carefully trained by Thirsk to be a great King? Shouldn't they have gone for Baron Wind Song too?
Nope, we have a set of supposed assassinations which look exactly like natural deaths, none of which destabilise the countries or churches the deceased characters headed. Only one successor is then targeted.
Sounds to me more like 'people died and the next generation of characters steps up for the new series.'
